The present disclosure relates to dusters, and particularly to particulate dusters used to apply particulate material to a substrate. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to devices have for handling and dispensing dry particulate materials, such as flour, sugar and grain. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,365 discloses a dispenser with a hopper having a vibrating screen therein. U.S. Pat. No. 2,633,242 discloses a flour duster including an outer housing open at the bottom with a perforated screen plate forming the bottom wall of the hopper. U.S. Pat. No. 2,390,195 discloses a flour duster including a curved bottom screen with an agitator bar and rotating brush therein. U.S. Pat. No. 2,323,864 discloses a vibratory feeder including a vibrating hopper and vibrating tray. U.S. Pat. No. 2,066,899 discloses a flour dusting mechanism including a hopper having a perforate bottom and an agitator mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 1,926,903 discloses a sifter mechanism having a stationary hopper with rocking agitators comprised of longitudinal rods therein. U.S. Pat. No. 1,537,123 discloses a dry feeding machine having a vibrating hopper section with rotating agitator means therein. U.S. Pat. No. 1,181,208 discloses a candy starching device with a vibrating screen sifter and a rotating assembly within the hopper. U.S. Pat. No. 311,904 discloses a grain separator and cleaner with a vibrating screen assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 52,693 discloses a drug and spice sifter including a curved screen and rotating assembly therein, and U.S. Pat. No. 44,785 discloses a plaster and seed sower including a dual-chamber hopper with rotating devices in each chamber.
The above-described devices are typically refilled by hand. Because of this, filling prior art devices causes the unwanted spread of particulate matter around the equipment creating a potentially hazardous condition.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a method and apparatus for uniformly dispensing particulate materials on a substrate without causing the unwanted distribution of such materials when filling the apparatus.